Month: August 2017

In the Court of Appeal’s grounds of judgment dated 10 August 2017 of Gan Bee San v Malayan Banking Berhad, the Court of Appeal allowed an appeal and set aside a winding up order. The decision confirms the growing list of appellate authorities where the Court has the inherent jurisdiction to set aside a winding up order. The brief facts are below.

The Federal Court in its grounds of judgment dated 17 August 2017 has ruled on the Thai-Lao Lignite v Government of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic appeal.

The Question of Law and the Determination

There was one critical question of law that was answered by the Federal Court:

Where the governing law of the contract is foreign law and the seat of arbitration [seat] is Malaysia, does the parties’ stipulation of Malaysia as the seat constitute an express agreement that the law governing the arbitration agreement is Malaysian law?

On 4 August 2017, the Companies Commission of Malaysia, or SSM (its Malay acronym), has brought into force audit exemption for certain categories of private companies. SSM has issued Practice Directive No. 3/2017 to set out the qualifying criteria for private companies to be exempted from appointing an auditor for a financial year. SSM’s FAQ document has also been updated as at 4 August 2017 to address questions regarding audit exemption.

Credit: Nick Youngson – http://nyphotographic.com/

The following types of private companies can decide to opt for audit exemption:

Dormant companies;

Zero-revenue companies; and

Threshold-qualified companies – annual revenue of RM100,000 or less, total assets of RM300,000 or less, and 5 employees or less.